THE TRENDS THAT WILL DOMINATE ONLINE MARKETING IN 2014

The growth of social media and mobile technology is having a deep impact on marketing for businesses of all sizes

Not only are these changes transforming online marketing strategies, they are altering the relationship between businesses and consumers.

As more businesses distribute original content, inbound marketing continues to grow, and as online platforms continue to multiply, the voice of the consumer is louder than ever before. Online marketing has changed dramatically in the last few years, but what is likely to happen in 2014?

Content Marketing Will Grow Even Stronger

Distributing content across multiple social media channels will remain just as relevant. As each social media channel continues to evolve and more platforms come onto the market, consumers will have even more opportunities to engage with businesses. As a result, businesses will need to interact more with consumers to build a positive brand image and strengthen their credibility.

Consumers must be able to share online content easily and also see how many other consumers have already shared the content. This highlights the importance of clearly visible share buttons on all social media channels.

Brands Will Exploit More Social Media Channels

As an increasing number of social media channels appear online, businesses have even more opportunities for online marketing. While most businesses used to concentrate on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube for marketing, the choice is now more varied and continues to grow. Businesses can be more selective by choosing channels that suit their brand’s audience demographic. With SlideShare, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, and more, businesses have more options than ever to distribute engaging content in various formats.

The challenge for businesses over the next few years is to figure out which social media channels work best for their brand. This will lead to more investment in analytics tools, which will enable more businesses to modify their content marketing strategies to reach more potential customers.

Visuals Will Continue to Dominate Social Media Content

With more adverts and brand imagery competing for on-screen attention, content that is easier to digest will still rule. This is why images and video content are likely to become even more important to brands. The rise in image-centric social media sites demonstrates the power of visual content. In fact, the most shareable content continues to be image-based. Even blog posts that use minimal imagery are more likely to be shared across multiple social media channels. This is why an increasing number of businesses are using infographics to get their messages across. As more visual content creation software becomes available to businesses, this trend is likely to spread.

Mobile-Friendly Content Will Be Essential

As sales in tablets and smartphones continue to rise, businesses need to ensure their content is mobile-friendly. Those that fail to do so will ultimately lose customers. Over the next year, more content will be tailored specifically to mobile devices and designed to give consumers a better online experience. Companies will either need to create an alternative mobile website or use more responsive web design to keep up with the competition and extend the reach of their brand.

Ad Retargeting Will Spread

Many marketers have had success with ad retargeting, the online marketing strategy that uses browser cookies to track consumer behavior and then deliver targeted ads across websites they visit. Studies have shown that ad retargeting can increase overall conversion rates by keeping brands in the minds of consumers. As more businesses recognize its benefits, ad retargeting could become even more widespread in 2014.

Social Signals Will Have a Greater Impact on SEO

Search engines are always striving to deliver the highest quality and most relevant content, so it’s likely that social signals will count more toward search engine rankings in the near future. With more shares across social media channels being a good indicator of higher quality content, businesses will encourage more people to share their content. No one can predict how Google’s algorithms will change in the coming months, but social shares are likely to become an important SEO factor by the end of 2014.

Simpler Designs Will Dominate

Consumers today prefer simpler marketing messages and want a fluid online experience. Consider how Apple and Google have succeeded with simple design and uncomplicated marketing messages. Pinterest’s success is partly due to its minimalist design and straightforward interface. In 2014, the most successful marketing strategies are likely to be simpler by design and should strive to make the consumer’s life less complicated.

The Bottom Line

As consumers continue to demand more original content from businesses, content distribution will continue to play a major part in online marketing in 2014. Businesses will need to carefully choose which social media channels to use for brand promotion and create visually dynamic, mobile-friendly content that consumers will want to share. Keep an eye on these developing online marketing trends and your business is more likely to succeed in 2014 and beyond.